Emerald Downs 2016
 

.20 Pick 7 with a 16.1 vig. Details aren't clear but there will be a Carryover provision.

Don't think it's a rainbow/sole winner kind of thing.

891 horses on the grounds vs. 726 last year with another 200 coming in from Turf Paralyzed soon.

Bigger fields, nice surface, my favorite track except for 1 problem.

New comer (who caused some funny race riding last year to start-tons of RATING on a glib supersonic surface) Julien Couton is back again. :bang:


Looking forward to seeing if EMD is formful and logical like it used to be (for years) as opposed to the opposite like it was sometimes last year (with Couton arriving).

Also, Erick Lopez will come over for the 1st time joining some solid holdovers, Gutierrez, Mawing, My fav-Bowen, Enriquez and others.

Should be a fun meet. Hope some of ya join in on the Emerald feed. It's a gorgeous track that doesn't have slots and has a decent crowd every day.

Hope this .20 pick 7 handles well. I plan to attack it almost daily.

They averaged 6.86 per race last yr after 6.27 the year before. Maybe this year they'll average a whopping 6.9 horses per race.

So 20% more horses on the grounds could bring the average to 8.3.

That's about 2 or 3 more than many races I see at other tracks, sadly.

The .20 pick 7 would be interesting even IF there were 5 starters per race, nevermind 8 per race. Don't blame them for trying something different.

That would be awesome, I always enjoyed playing EMD late night, Bigger fields would be sweet :) :ThmbUp:

Z

I miss the Thursday night racing. Hopefully in 2017, IF and it's a BIG IF, they have many more horses on the grounds in 2016, the horsemen push for 4 days a week instead of 3 in 2017.

Do you ever see Hastings closing or is that market ok? Could have some really huge fields if that day ever came I would think!!

I'm not the expert :blush:

I hope not. That is another track I like to wager on. Despite it being a bullring and their feed being from 1776, I like Hastings.

From what I've heard, Hastings is in a "stable" mode now....they will run 50-55 days per year, and their purse pool supports it, although they have wiped out the middle claimers for the most part.

Excited for the start of EMD and HST....

I wish rece tracks would start making bets that were more frequent and easier to hit rather than something that lasts over half the card and you would be extremely lucky to hit more than 1 a month .... and they wonder why the can not compete against blackjack.

I'm just going to say right now, it won't.

I met with EMD management after the purchase, and spent hours going over suggestions. What came of it? No takeout decreases, larger purses, and a stupid .20 pick 7 that despite larger fields is never going to get big enough to matter. These guys run casinos, they know better. They're just caving to the pressure from the horsemen and thus will continue to lose money on the racing side of their business. But hey, they'll get card rooms or something at EMD and it's all good.

Nice to hear that they're "stable," sad to hear they're only able to run 50 days a year.

I worked there at the turn of the century and I remember them cutting back to about 70 days. There was pandemonium, none of the horsemen could figure out how they were going to make a living on 70 days of racing. 10 years before that, they were running 100+ days a year.

I hope the racing in Vancouver is able to survive, but if you look at the progression, they'll soon be down to one day a week, racing 3 months a year.

Not a lot of new blood on the backstretch. Seems to be most of the same people for the last 3 or 4 decades. Once one of them passes away or retires, nobody seems to take their place. Very sad.

Hastings is more stable than Emerald, and their shippers have been very competitive the last few years.

Much appreciate the feedback Charli125 :)

May I ask for some more of your thoughts? Also, what was the motivation behind the tribe buying the track?

Sad :( As a devout fan, that kills me to hear.

All these "fans" on PA should learn to bet tracks like Hastings and Sam Houston as well as Portland, AS THOSE TRACKS have cared enough to reduce handle on various bets. (if they don't already)

That's the #2 reason I bet these tracks.

#1 is because I happen to do very well at those tracks.

Julien is coming back to EMD, keep your binocs on him ;) :bang:

His uniform gets dirty even when he's on the lead.